Parents not happy with timing of today’s AFL Preliminary Final

Parents on the Eastern Seaboard are reportedly unhappy with the scheduling of today’s AFL Preliminary Final, with the match starting at 4.45pm and, for many families, will play during the witching hour, dinner service, bath time, and bed time. The time chosen is the perfect storm of the AFL trying to please their television broadcasters, while also providing a rare concession to actual football reasons.

While the logical choice would be a traditional 2.10pm timeslot to allow extra recovery time for the winning side, we can be excused for occasionally forgetting that the AFL has essentially become a thinly veiled reality television program – albeit a very good one.

A parent from Watsonia told us, “I know they avoid the night timeslot because they want to give the winning team those precious extra three hours of recovery time for next week, but what about me? I have to back it up tomorrow, then the day after that, and the day after that. What does the AFL think about that?

“How are me and the missus supposed to focus on the game when it’s on smack bang in the middle of kiddy peak hour? And if my little fella reckons we’re flicking over in the last quarter so he can watch Shaun the Sheep he’s got another thing coming!”